THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
4,500 new proprietors, each owning 40
acres, introduces new problems, economic
and technical as well as political.
The enemies of agrarian reform insist
that the improvement of the human con
dition will involve a consequent deteriora
tion of stock and agricultural products.
But Latvia assumes that it can as
easily become a second Denmark by ap
proximating the human conditions among
the Danes as it can by copying stock
raising methods alone.
THE REMAINS OF ONE OF THE FINEST
ROADS IN THE WORLD
The old chaussee between Berlin and
St. Petersburg (Leningrad), across what
is now Latvia, was one of the finest roads
in the world. My chauffeur, who drove
the 30 miles from Riga to Jelgava (Mi
tau) in two hours, had often made the
distance in pre-war days in 35 minutes.
There are stretches now where four high
powered cars could race abreast, but at
the time of my visit several road crews
were hard at work piling stone, crushing
it with modern machinery, and resurfac
ing this highway, which was long subject
to shell-fire and war traffic and is only
now being thoroughly restored.
The region between Riga and Jelgava
has not lost its war look. Trenches still
sprawl across the thin soil. Barbed wire
entanglements are hidden in the under
brush. Several of the stations are quite
dwarfed by piles of barbed wire. Scores
of peasants are living in shelters not
much better than those used by troops
during the war (see page 404).
Cement gun
emplacements
were
boarded up in back and provided with a
single window. In one an old woman and
her son were living, seemingly contented,
with a sunflower garden and a faithful
but suspicious dog.
Along the roadsides and in the fields
from which hay or grain had been har
vested, young girls and boys were watch
ing their herds.
THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS ARE RECOVERING
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams
Splendid as is the capital of Latvia, it
A YOUNG LATVIAN WOMAN OF JELGAVA is in the country that one is most im
In the labor of Latvia there is neither age pressed by the fight these people are mak
nor sex line. Children assume definite duties ing. The country is recovering. The
at the age of seven, and old women stagger
into the towns under heavy loads or toil in flocks and herds are increasing, the fields
water to rescue swamp grass for hay.
are producing their harvests. Just now
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